The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture launched in early November, 2002. If you are interested in the goals of info-arch.org--building IA community infrastructure--then you should get involved in the AIfIA. Why? Because Info-arch.org didn't provide an organization to back up the great ideas that were captured on this site; the AIfIA will. Hope that you will become involved in the AIfIA. --Lou Rosenfeld

What is this about?

This site is a hopeful attempt to discuss and capture ideas that may
lead to useful shared services for the information
architecture community. Got a great idea that could benefit other IAs?
Get the word out here and maybe you'll find a collaborator. Want to
start up an organization of IA professionals? Discuss
it here and maybe it will happen.

What do you mean by "shared services"?

Anything that will help us all and build and promote our field; the
list on the right is a start. What's missing? What would really
make your work and life as an IA easier? Post your ideas here, and let's
get the discussion going on SIGIA-L
and see where it takes us...

Yow. Who is going to do all this
work?

That's easy: you. Many of you are already working on cool projects
or are planning to. And new IA-related sites seem to appear every day.
Let's identify more great projects to work on, and
connect them with people who want to do the work. And
determine if there is a model for coordinating these
efforts (e.g., a professional association).

Please, God, not another professional
association...

Hold on, not necessarily. Coordination doesn't have to come with the
bureaucratic baggage that is too common to traditional professional
assocations. There may be other
models. Or maybe this is our chance to invent a new model?

...if we could use these efforts to showcase IA skills
as well as create good services for ourselves? Absolutely!

Why do this now?

Recent SIGIA-L discussions (and private conversations) have made it
clear that the planets are aligned to address these
issues right now. Besides, lots of us have, um, a few cycles to spare
these days. The energy is there, so let's tap it.